Preview: 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch'
Gender-bending musical hits the border
Imagine you're a young East German named Hansel and you fall in love with an American GI named Luther, but the only way you can legally marry him and move to the States is to get a sex change operation. So you go ahead with the surgery, but the result is anything but a success. Then Luther abandons you in a Kansas trailer park where you – now living as Hedwig – turn to rock 'n' roll and become an "internationally ignored" transvestite "song stylist."
Sounds like a great recipe for a musical comedy, doesn't it?
Writer John Cameron Mitchell and music/lyricist Stephen Trask certainly thought so – and so did the throngs who made "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" a smash hit off-Broadway when it originally opened in 1998.
So it always surprised me that not one of Metro Detroit's professional theater companies grabbed this gender-bending musical by its teeny, weenie tail and sold it to the rafters. After all, with its relatively small cast and cult following, it seemed a no-brainer – especially for one of our more avant-garde companies, or even one of our start-up theaters. Yet statewide, only a few brave community theaters have so far staged the award-winning off-Broadway favorite.
Until this week, that is, when "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" makes its professional debut in not just one international border city, but two!
"I love the idea of a collaboration between Detroit and Windsor in bringing contemporary theater to both cities," Valerie Bonasso, artistic partner with Breathe Art Theatre Project, told Curtain Calls a few weeks back. "That's one of the reasons why we choose the shows we do, because they're contemporary and they haven't been done in this area. So when 'Hedwig' was suggested, we thought it was a great idea. Not only is it a socially conscious piece, but it's also a comedy."
"Hedwig" is the third and final show of Breathe Art's second complete Cross-Border Season, and the second to be staged in both cities. The group was formed by Canadian and American artists to celebrate the peaceful international border between Detroit and Windsor.
What initially drew Bonasso, the show's director, to "Hedwig" was its music. "Not just the rock 'n' roll aspect, but the lyrics. Stephen Trask did a phenomenal job incorporating the story into the lyrics. It's very addictive; the music is so amazing."
But it's the story that especially appeals to the director. "It's a simple story told in a very outrageous way. If you take away all the make-up, all the drag and all the jokes, the bottom line is the story is just a simple coming of age story."
It's a tale, she believes, to which young people today can certainly relate. "Hedwig could be taken as the modern-day Everyman in that ridiculous, outrageous kind of a way where young people today don't have a place in this world. In order to find their place, they need to go through a growth period, and I feel this piece truly shows anybody's coming of age."
The show initially opens March 3 in Windsor at the Loop Nightclub, a location Bonasso calls "the perfect venue," since the style of the show is in the form of a cabaret. "It's the right atmosphere, the right clientele and it's right downtown. It's one of my favorite places to go in Windsor; a lot of young hipsters hang out there."
The show crosses the border March 10 to begin a three-weekend run at 1515 Broadway in downtown Detroit's theater district. Regular visitors to the venerable playhouse will be in for quite a surprise when they walk inside the theater – but it's a secret that won't be revealed here.
SUBHEAD It's a drag
Actor Kevin Young didn't know much about "Hedwig" before he auditioned for Breathe Art last fall. "I knew it was about a man in drag, but that's about all," he recalled.
So when he was called back for the title role, he rented the movie and was immediately drawn into it. But it's a huge challenge, he said, since his recent professional experience has been in children's theater. "I've been doing safe projects, playing Thomas Edison or something like that. Greenfield Village isn't going to stretch me the way a show like this will – and that's really great," he said.
Performing in drag will be no big deal for the actor. "To me, there's no difference between high heels and a wig, and a fake nose and ears in children's theater. It's all just costume. It just means that I have a little more preparation in the beginning and a little more washing at the end."
Although it's Young who owns the angry inch in the production, he's not its only gender-bender.
"It's been an interesting process finding the humanity in these characters," said Katie Galazka who plays Yitzhak, a band member from Eastern Europe who marries Hedwig in order to obtain his green card. "Taking this character I thought I had nothing in common with and finding out how he very directly relates with various experiences I've had or relationships I'd had – it doesn't seem that far of a leap anymore that this is a man and I'm a woman. It's very relatable."
Despite how it sounds, Young wants theatergoers unfamiliar with "Hedwig" to realize it's not a drag show. "It's about making mistakes with lovers to find yourself," he said. "You may be searching for someone else, but what we all realize at the end is you better be damn okay with yourself, or else no other relationships are going to work.
"She really IS an example of the Everyman – especially for our generation."
"Hedwig and the Angry Inch" initially runs March 3-4 at Loop Nightclub, 159 Chatham St. W., Windsor (four blocks from the tunnel); then plays Fri.-Sun., March 10-26 at 1515 Broadway, Detroit. Tickets: $20. For information: 519-980-0607 (Windsor), 313-965-1515 (Detroit) or http://www.breathearttheatre.com.
